Retro Football: A Salute To Journeyman Goalkeeper John Burridge And His Incredibly Acrobatic Warm-Up Routine (Video)

Goalkeeper John Burridge is fondly remembered for a variety of reasons, though his remarkably nomadic career is perhaps chief among them.

Over 29 years in the game, Budgie turned out for 31 different teams and even managed to squeeze in second and third stints at some of them – his 131 appearances for Blackpool at the very beginning of his professional career (1971-75) being the longest he ever stuck around anywhere.

As well as somewhat unsurprisingly holding the record for representing the most Football League clubs (15) in his career, he is also the oldest player to have ever played in the Premier League, a record he set when he turned out for Man City against QPR in May 1995 aged 43 years and 162 days.

Oh, and it just so happens that Burridge is also the proprietor of the fanciest, most impressively acrobatic warm-up routine football has ever seen, as this Big Match segment duly proves…

Outrageous technique. Outstanding prowess. An undisputed one-off.

We can’t help but think what a modern day fitness coach would make of Budgie’s powersaults, besides being completely and hopelessly overawed by them.

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Wikipedia says : “John Burridge (born 3 December 1951) is an English former football goalkeeper. In his senior career he played for 29 different clubs in a career that lasted nearly 30 years. Overall, Burridge played 771 league games in the English and Scottish leagues, and several more at non-league level. Burridge (nicknamed Budgie), played for fifteen Football League teams, which is a still-existing record.”